The Wisdom of Fools, c. 1592

Not on View

series Title

Six Proverbs (plate 4)

Medium

engraving and letterpress on laid paper

Dimensions

plate: 24.5 x 17.2 cm (9 5/8 x 6 3/4 in.)

sheet: 34.6 x 27.3 cm (13 5/8 x 10 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Catalogue Raisonné

New Hollstein, no. 98, State i/iii

Accession Number

2004.2.4

Artists / Makers

Hendrick Goltzius (related artist) Dutch, 1558 - 1617

Karel van Mander I (artist after) Netherlandish, 1548 - 1606

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower left, in image, in plate: 4; below image, in plate: Cuiq[ue] suum pulchrum est, et gaudet Simia prole / L[a]eta sua, gaudet quantum haud Erycina puello / Diua pharetrato, nec formosissimus ore / Arrisit roseo matri inter basia Nireus. / Ad sua c[a]ecutit iam quisq[ue], est noctua falco, / Falco suo domino, qui non discernit ab atris / Candida, sed stupida ruit in deliria mente / Quicquid amatq[ue] probat, nulloq[ue] examine pensat. (In everyone's eyes one's own progeny is beautiful and the she-ape is very happy with her offspring, happier even than the goddess of Eryx [Venus] with her little arrow-bearing boy, and also the ravishing Nireus with a smile on his lips was not considered all that beautiful by his mother when he kissed her. Everyone is blind to his own offspring, the owl is a falcon, a falcon to his master who cannot distinguish white from black, but in his stupidity rushes toward insanity and approves everything he loves without subjecting it to scrutiny.); below plate, in letterpress: Dat elck Sotken prysen zijn Marotken wil, / Maect dicwils geschil, want selfs menich schalck,, niet / En bevroedt, dat men door den affecti bril, / Al graeu voor blaeu, ja zijn Vyl voor een Valck,, siet. (The crow doth think her Birds the fair'st to bee, / Soe Men that look through fond affections glass / Take owles for hawks, and white for black they see, / Where fools must judge soe things will come to pass.)

[translations by Jan Bloemendal in _The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700_. (Karel van Mander, Marjolein Leesberg, author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1999, no. 98, p. lxxvi.]

Provenance

Château de la Roche-Guyon, France (part of an album)1; (Paul Prouté S.A., Paris); purchased by NGA, 2003.

1 The album was bound in vellum, with "Abraham" on the cover and "Ligeoys" on the back cover. The Château de la Roche-Guyon stamp was on some of the pages, which included a variety of northern mannerist prints by Goltzius, Matham, Saenredam, and others. It was apparently dismantled by Prouté for sale of some of the prints to the NGA.

Associated Names

Prouté, S.A., Paul

Bibliography

1949: Hollstein, F.W.H. et al. German engravings, etchings and woodcuts ca. 1400-1700. 8 vols. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1954-1868. Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700. Vols. I-XV, XVIII, XIX. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberge

1993: The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (Karel van Mander, Marjolein Leesberg, author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1996-, no. 98, state i/iii.